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Thursday, October 14, 2010

One Piece: Unlimited Adventure impressions

So, I got in the mail this morning a replacement nunchuk for my Wii. Haven't had one for a few years, as we lost it soon after getting it. Thusly, it means I've missed out on quite a few years of Wii games. Predictably, most of them don't excite me, but there's always something out there to warm up to. Of course, the first thing i tried with it was Punch-Out!!. It's really not as good as when you're playing with the Wiimote alone, though I only played Glass Joe to try it out, so i may not have given it enough time. I went through a few more games, until i got to one that I was really wanting to try out: One Piece unlimited Adventure.

I've jsut started a few months back watching the anime of this, after a friend convinced me to give it a shot. I remember enjoying it back when I read Shonen Jump, but that being monthly, it just got too annoying trying to follow every story in that mag, so i jsut basically dropped the whole thing. I really was pleasantly surprised at how good and fun it was to watch, even now. And before someone starts something up, yes, i know it's a show for pre-teens and such, but damnit, it's still a hell of a lot of fun. Anyone who's pushing it away for that reason alone, loosen up and give it a real chance. It's not OMFG AWSUMM, but it's a great way to kill an afternoon.

Back on topic, I read a few reviews of this and it seemed like they were all overall positive, and the description reminded me of a couple other games I enjoyed. So, I decided to give it a try. And, after a few hours of playing it, the first thing that pops into my head is that this game is a good way to describe one of the problem core gamers have with Nintendo nowadays: This One Piece-themed Zelda knockoff is leagues better than the actual Zelda game that was made on the Wii. Keep in mind, this game is from late 2007, so it's not like this is a recent release that has all the years of development experience. This is, what, a year or two after the system came out? Sure, it doesn't have all the wagglan and this and that of Twilight Princess, but dammit, it's probably better for it.

Now, saying it's a Zelda clone doesn't really describe the game fully. It plays like a mix between Zelda and, I'd say something like Ratchet and Clank or Jak and Daxter, but I never played either of those series of games, so I really don't know if that's an apt description. The game plays a lot like Zelda, but with a couple additions. As you play, you gain new attacks by "leveling up" the ones you have. This is expedited by the fact that in every fight, a move list pops up on the side of the screen. As you pull off attacks, the list shrinks, until there is only one attack left. Pull this attack off, and it does massive damage, so much so that the enemy defeated drops items and health. The second thing is that, instead of being stuck playing one character all game, you can choose between 8 characters: Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, Usopp, Robin, and Frankie, each with their own health bar, and attacks. I'd imagine they each have different properties to them, like jumping ability, etc, but while I played I only used Nami and Chopper, so I can't say much about that. And, instead of getting new weapons from chests, you have to build everything by collecting materials from enemies and stuff you find on the island.

The biggest gripe I have so far is somewhere between the ease of messing up jumps because of the camera (which I feel I'm unqualified to talk about, seeing as how desensitized i was to bad camera angles after years of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2) and the fact that there's no sub option. The game is dub only, though if you know what you're doing, you could easily play an import version. The dub itself really isn't bad, but after watching the show in subs for so long, some of the voices irk me at times. Thus, it's all personal problems, and really isn't something that detracts from the game too much. However, being a One Piece game, it's not very difficult. As much as I'm enjoying it all now, I'm only a few hours in, and I really doubt it'd be something that could hold my interest from beginning to end. It's definitely a good game, but nothing too special. If I were to give it a score, probably 7.5/10, above average, but not super great. If you like OP, or the game sounds like something you'd like, definitely give it a try.